April 15 may become known as the annual day on which WWE cuts superstars every year. The company has performed annual cuts on this day for the second straight year. Obviously, WWE did this last year citing the economic hit of the pandemic by releasing people like Heath Slater (he’s still got kids) and Zack Ryder.
This is somewhat ironic when one takes into account that 2020 was the most profitable year in WWE history, so the company could not have been negatively affected too much by the pandemic. With the innovative introduction of the ThunderDome on August 21, 2020, WWE proved its capability of adaptation to a changing world and its ability to quickly pivot. These days, WWE’s most valuable assets are the company’s lucrative TV contracts (with NBC Universal and FOX respectively).
WWE released 10 wrestlers on April 15, 2021 – including Billie Kay and Peyton Royce, who were known as the IIconics and one the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships at WrestleMania 35 in 2019. Chelsea Green appeared to be trending upward in WWE, and others who were let go are Mickie James, Kalisto, Tucker (Otis’ former tag partner), Wesley Blake, and Bo Dallas (Bray Wyatt’s biological brother).
The most shocking release of all in 2021 is Samoa Joe. He is the Samoan Submission Machine that had a head injury a little over a year ago and has not been in the ring since. He made a move to the commentary table in a full-time role on Monday Night Raw after Mania in 2020 and has been in that role ever since. WWE must have viewed Joe as being expendable on commentary and this makes total sense given that the company likes to rotate announcers every few years.
Joe seems to have full rights to the ring name Samoa Joe, so he will be known by that name wherever he goes (Samoa Joe made a massive name for himself in companies like TNA (impact) and Ring of Honor before signing with NXT in 2015). The bottom line is that he will make huge money and be a massive asset, assuming his concussion issues are resolved (much like Daniel Bryan), wherever he goes. That could be AEW, or a return to ROH or Impact, or doing something like going overseas to wrestle with a foreign company like NJPW.
The entire group of talent that was released this year was severely underutilized as only a couple of them were used at Mania. Most of them were looking at options anyway to get out of WWE and had already come to the consensus in their mind that they were going to be released at some point. WWE is just unwilling or unable to make it work and get certain superstars over, but they still have major talent and do very well for other companies. A perfect example is Mr. Kennedy, who was released in the late 2000’s, went to TNA, and became a world champion (he was great on the microphone and was similar to a watered-down version of Chris Jericho).
Vince McMahon was not a big fan of Mr. Kennedy (neither was John Cena). But anyway, Mickie James cannot say enough positive things about her time in WWE; she reiterated multiple times how grateful she was for her time with the company.
Joe was just recently calling the WrestleMania 37 matches for Monday Night Raw with Michael Cole a couple weeks ago. He spent nearly 6 years with WWE and was a former two-time NXT Champion (one of four men to hold that title multiple times – the others are Shinsuke Nakamura, Finn Balor, and current champion Karrion Kross. In addition, he was promoted to the main roster in 2017 and won the United States Championship in his tenure as well as having multiple WWE title matches. Joe’s best storyline on the main roster was a feud with AJ Styles over the WWE title – lasting from SummerSlam in August 2018 through October. The last major thing Joe did on the main roster was at Extreme Rules in July 2019 when he challenged Kofi Kingston for the WWE Championship (unsuccessfully).